Loose Lips
Whenever I put up a picture of someone doing a jump or drop-off, you can guarantee that within minutes someone will post a particular type of reply. It could be “What trail is that?”, the brief-and-snappy “Location??” or the more Bristolian “Where’s that to?” but the basic theme is that people want to know where, so they can go and check it out themselves.
Most of the time some helpful people respond and the original poster says something like “Cool, [tags name of friend here], we should go and check this out!”
Rarely if ever is the question followed by more questions: what’s the best time to go riding there, how busy does it get, is there anywhere I shouldn’t be riding, how can I get involved and make it better?
Mountain biking doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and even well-established riding spots usually have some ground rules. Take Belmont (Ashton Hill Plantation) near Bristol - the trails and jumps up there are the product of a shed load of hard work by local riders and unless people respect the (pretty reasonable) rules laid out by the land manager, all of that could be lost.
There are unwritten rules too. I’m going to make a wild but probably true assertion here: litter gets more trails shut down than ‘elf and safety. Yet you’ll never see a mountain bike trail or a set of jumps with a sign saying “PLEASE TAKE YOUR RUBBISH HOME” because it’s just so flipping obvious. Or is it?
I realise that this is another pointless internet rant, and that the cat’s not just out of the bag, it’s all the way across the garden and up the bird table. Ever since sites like MTBR started putting up (mostly bloody terrible) reviews online, people have been chucking their bikes in the car and going to check out places they’ve read about on the internet. There are lots more information sources out there now than when I started riding, loads of people record their rides with GPS and upload them, and it’s never been easier to find places to ride.
The problem is that there’s hardly ever an attempt to balance out the thrill of discovery with a bit of sensible advice. So may I make a suggestion. If you’re sharing knowledge of a trail with someone, particularly in a sensitive spot, link them to some info about the place so they know what they’re getting into. And if some sniffer who’s never shown any interest in your posts about dig days or responsible riding asks where something is, remember, you don’t have to say anything at all.
